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Aims: Disulfiram is widely used to prevent alcoholic relapse. However, due to the intended adverse reaction with ethanol, some believe that its use is dangerous for patients with personality disorders or psychiatric comorbidities because of their increased risk of impulsivity or suicidal behaviour. We examined the safety and efficacy in relapse prevention of a series of alcoholics with borderline personality disorder (BPD).

Methods: Case history study of patients diagnosed with BPD, prescribed disulfiram in a dose of 1.5–2.5 g/week, supervised by a physician in up to three brief contacts per week.

Results: Two out of eight patients remained completely abstinent during the supervised disulfiram therapy over a mean period of 9.25 months. Adherence to treatment was 18.44 ± 21.78 months. The first relapse occurred after 1.38 ± 1.41 months. The cumulated time of abstinence was 16.88 ± 20.48 months. The overall tolerability was considered to be high; dizziness and fatigue appeared in all patients at the beginning of the therapy but did not persist. No serious adverse events or ethanol–disulfiram interactions were observed. No suicidal behaviour was reported.

Conclusions: Although case observations should be interpreted with caution, supervised disulfiram seems to deserve further investigation in patients with comorbid BPD, for whom it appears to help prevent alcoholic relapse.

Aim: Pathological gambling and comorbid alcohol dependence often occur in combination. Disulfiram is one of the proven drugs for alcohol dependence. In addition to its inhibiting acetaldehyde dehydrogenase, disulfiram inhibits dopamine β-hydroxylase and may thereby increase dopamine and decrease norepinephrine cerebral concentrations. Because there may be common neurochemical substrates and neuronal circuits for pathological gambling and addiction, we wished to explore the effect of disulfiram in gambling. Method: We describe the outcome of a patient with alcohol dependence and pathological gambling treated with disulfiram D. Results: During treatment with disulfiram, the patient reported that his desire to gamble disappeared entirely. Follow-up indicated that he has not gambled for >12 months. Conclusions: Although uncontrolled case observations should be interpreted with caution, disulfiram deserves further investigation in pathological gambling.

Aims: To compare the long-term effectiveness of acamprosate (ACP) and disulfiram (DSF) in the treatment of alcohol dependence and their effectiveness in regard to patient characteristics, within a naturalistic outpatient treatment setting. Method: Retrospective data from 2002 to 2007 were analysed on 353 alcohol-dependent subjects in outpatient treatment, who, according to the patient’s and the clinician’s mutual decision, received either supervised DSF (with thrice-weekly appointments) or ACP (once-weekly appointments) following an inpatient alcohol detoxification treatment. Abstinence was assessed by alcohol breathalyzer, patients’ self-report, urine and serum analyses, and overall physicians’ rating. Results: Baseline data in terms of current addictive behaviour and course of disease differed between groups to the disadvantage of the DSF group; compared to the ACP group, subjects treated with DSF showed a longer duration of alcohol dependence, higher amounts of daily alcohol consumption and more alcohol detoxification treatments in their history. In follow-up, Kaplan–Meier survival analysis revealed significant differences between groups in the primary and secondary measures of outcome (P always <0.01). Time elapsed before the first alcohol relapse as well as attendance to outpatient treatment and cumulative alcohol abstinence achieved within outpatient treatment was explicitly longer in the DSF group. A longer duration of alcohol dependence predicted a favourable treatment outcome in the DSF group, while for the ACP group the chances for a successful treatment increased with shorter duration of alcohol dependence. Conclusions: This study supports the thesis that supervised DSF is an important component of alcoholism treatment, and it appears to be more effective than the treatment with ACP particularly in patients with a long duration of alcohol dependence.